Floating cage aquaculture in the Cha Va River in Vung Tau city’s Long Son commune.(Photo: VNA)Ba Ria-Vung Tau (VNS/VNA) - The southern province of Ba Ria – Vung Tauis protecting seafood resources and developing aquaculture sustainably, withlocal authorities preventing destructive fishing activities and encouragingfarmers to apply advanced techniques.
The province, the fishing hub of the south-east, faced difficulties such asdeclining catches in recent years because of depleting resources caused bydestructive fishing activities like trawling and gillnetting.
To mitigate the destructive activities, the People’s Committee has tasked theDepartment of Agriculture and Rural Development with helping fishermen workingon near-shore fishing boats and trawling and gillnetting vessels to switch toother jobs.
It has refused licences for trawlers since 2013, and enabled fishermen on suchboats to switch to other jobs.
The number of trawlers has reduced by 62 in the first half of this year to1,476.
Le Van Tong, head of the Fisheries Sub-department, said the catch in the firsthalf of the year is estimated at 185,200 tonnes, an increase of 1 percentyear-on-year.
The focus now is on high-value species like tuna, mackerel, cuttlefish, andoctopus, he said.
In the first half of the year the province harvested 9,600 tonnes fromaquaculture farms, 427 tonnes higher than in the same period last year. Theincrease was mostly in white-legged shrimp output.
With about 6,300ha of aquaculture farms, the province has implemented variousdevelopment policies in recent years, including encouraging farmers to use newtechnologies.
The use of advanced techniques extends to around 5.6 percent of the total area.
There are more than 400ha of shrimp farms that use advanced techniques andsuper- intensive farming methods. The model has a success rate of 90 percentand fetches an income of 1.2 – 1.4 billion VND (52,000 – 61,000 USD) perhectare per crop, many times higher than from traditional methods.
Now more farmers, co-operatives and companies use advanced techniques.
Bui The Vuong has a 7ha shrimp farm in Long Dien district’s An Ngai communewhere he uses super - intensive farming techniques. He uses 1.5ha to farm thecrustaceans and the rest to filter and treat the wastewater generated.
He can harvest three to five shrimp crops a year, at least twice the numberpossible using traditional methods, he said.
The death rate of shrimp is also lower, he said.
The province has 500 breeders using floating cage aquaculture methods, mostlyin Vung Tau city and Phu My town, who harvest round 15,000 tonnes of produce ayear.
More and more farmers use advanced techniques such as automatic feeding andenvironment monitoring systems.
They also use high-density polyethylene (HDPE) floating cages and nets withanti-fouling coatings based on Norwegian technology.
The cages, which are either round or square, can endure winds and waves, andcontain a large volume of fish as they have a perimeter of up to 100 metres anda depth of up to six metres.
Phan Hoang Son in Vung Tau city’s Long Son commune said he has been using HDPEfloating cages to breed marine fish for three years.
“[They] can be in the sea far from shore and with clean water, which preventspollution and disease. Their efficiency is 20 per cent higher than traditional cages.”
Nguyen Huu Thi, head of the province Fisheries Sub-department’s CultivationDivision, said aquaculture would be developed by applying advanced techniques,with priority given to shrimp breeding and floating cages.
The floating cage aquaculture is especially encouraged in estuaries and islandssince they are suitable for breeding high-value species like cobia, grouper,promfet, lobster, pearl oyster, and ornamental creatures.
The People’s Committee encourages setting up centres for research and farms forproducing seeds for commercial farming.
It has created favourable conditions for farmers to breed a range of species,use diverse breeding methods and apply good agricultural practices (GAP)standards and origin traceability, especially for products like black tigershrimp and white-legged shrimp.
It has solicited investment in seafood processing to meet both domestic andexport demand./.
The province, the fishing hub of the south-east, faced difficulties such asdeclining catches in recent years because of depleting resources caused bydestructive fishing activities like trawling and gillnetting.
To mitigate the destructive activities, the People’s Committee has tasked theDepartment of Agriculture and Rural Development with helping fishermen workingon near-shore fishing boats and trawling and gillnetting vessels to switch toother jobs.
It has refused licences for trawlers since 2013, and enabled fishermen on suchboats to switch to other jobs.
The number of trawlers has reduced by 62 in the first half of this year to1,476.
Le Van Tong, head of the Fisheries Sub-department, said the catch in the firsthalf of the year is estimated at 185,200 tonnes, an increase of 1 percentyear-on-year.
The focus now is on high-value species like tuna, mackerel, cuttlefish, andoctopus, he said.
In the first half of the year the province harvested 9,600 tonnes fromaquaculture farms, 427 tonnes higher than in the same period last year. Theincrease was mostly in white-legged shrimp output.
With about 6,300ha of aquaculture farms, the province has implemented variousdevelopment policies in recent years, including encouraging farmers to use newtechnologies.
The use of advanced techniques extends to around 5.6 percent of the total area.
There are more than 400ha of shrimp farms that use advanced techniques andsuper- intensive farming methods. The model has a success rate of 90 percentand fetches an income of 1.2 – 1.4 billion VND (52,000 – 61,000 USD) perhectare per crop, many times higher than from traditional methods.
Now more farmers, co-operatives and companies use advanced techniques.
Bui The Vuong has a 7ha shrimp farm in Long Dien district’s An Ngai communewhere he uses super - intensive farming techniques. He uses 1.5ha to farm thecrustaceans and the rest to filter and treat the wastewater generated.
He can harvest three to five shrimp crops a year, at least twice the numberpossible using traditional methods, he said.
The death rate of shrimp is also lower, he said.
The province has 500 breeders using floating cage aquaculture methods, mostlyin Vung Tau city and Phu My town, who harvest round 15,000 tonnes of produce ayear.
More and more farmers use advanced techniques such as automatic feeding andenvironment monitoring systems.
They also use high-density polyethylene (HDPE) floating cages and nets withanti-fouling coatings based on Norwegian technology.
The cages, which are either round or square, can endure winds and waves, andcontain a large volume of fish as they have a perimeter of up to 100 metres anda depth of up to six metres.
Phan Hoang Son in Vung Tau city’s Long Son commune said he has been using HDPEfloating cages to breed marine fish for three years.
“[They] can be in the sea far from shore and with clean water, which preventspollution and disease. Their efficiency is 20 per cent higher than traditional cages.”
Nguyen Huu Thi, head of the province Fisheries Sub-department’s CultivationDivision, said aquaculture would be developed by applying advanced techniques,with priority given to shrimp breeding and floating cages.
The floating cage aquaculture is especially encouraged in estuaries and islandssince they are suitable for breeding high-value species like cobia, grouper,promfet, lobster, pearl oyster, and ornamental creatures.
The People’s Committee encourages setting up centres for research and farms forproducing seeds for commercial farming.
It has created favourable conditions for farmers to breed a range of species,use diverse breeding methods and apply good agricultural practices (GAP)standards and origin traceability, especially for products like black tigershrimp and white-legged shrimp.
It has solicited investment in seafood processing to meet both domestic andexport demand./.
VNA
